Verbal Episodic Memory in Young Hypothyroid Patients

CONTEXT: Hypothyroidism affects cognitive functions especially memory. However, most of the previous studies have generally evaluated older hypothyroid patients and sample size of these studies varied in terms of age range. AIMS: To see whether hypothyroidism affects memory in young patients. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The sample consisted of 11 hypothyroid patients with an age of 18–49 and 8 healthy controls matched on age and education. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Verbal episodic memory was assessed using Hindi adaptation of Rey-Auditory Verbal Learning Test. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: An independent t-test was used to see the difference between mean performance of the patient group and healthy control on memory measures. RESULTS: Results indicated nonsignificant difference between verbal episodic memory of patient group and healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that hypothyroidism may not affect younger patients in terms of episodic verbal memory the same way as it does in the older patients.